At Tristia 1.117-120, Ovid refers directly to his Metamorphoses, equating his exilic situation with that of characters from his magnum opus, stating that his parvus liber should report to those in Rome that the vultus of his fortune may now be listed among the mutata corpora. This statement, placed in the opening poem of Ovid’s exilic project, is invested with programmatic value and begs the following questions: How has Ovid been changed? Why does he compare himself to characters from the Metamorphoses? What exactly is the payoff – for Ovid and the audience – of such an intertextual move? This dissertation explores these questions, arguing that this line is central to Ovid’s conception of his entire ‘exilic project’. By equating himself with his earlier characters, Ovid makes himself a character who undergoes the same transformations as they did; thus, his exilic transformation should be interpreted as occurring in the same fashion as transformations in the Metamorphoses. Those transformations, it is argued, were conceived of in terms of speech, community, and memory: whenever a character is transformed, that character suffers speech loss, is exiled from community, and is forgotten. In his exilic project, Ovid portrays himself as passing through these same steps. Furthermore, Ovid depicts his transformation in this way with an eye towards memory: reformulating how his exile would be perceived by his audience and how he, as a poet, would be remembered by posterity. In Chapter One, I begin by 1) setting the study within current scholarly trends and 2) examining what it meant to be ‘speechless’ in Ovid’s Rome. In Chapter Two, I set out the model for speech loss and community for the characters of the Metamorphoses. In Chapter Three, I turn to how Ovid applies this model to himself in his exilic project. In Chapter Four, I connect this model to memory, arguing that Ovid focuses on this model of speech and community because he, as an exile, is attempting to place himself back within the social frameworks of his community not only to be remembered, but to be remembered as he wants to be remembered. / text

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Ovid’s interest in women and their lives is apparent throughout his texts, but is especially so in the Metamorphoses. This study analyses the violation and violence of women in the Roman poet’s epic and sets out to uncover the governing social mores and values that perhaps shaped the representations of women in the text. It examines how Ovid’s narratives may betray his values and attitudes and those of his audience as well as looking at the various ways that the poet and his rape episodes have been read. After surveying the literature on rape in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ars Amatoria and the Fasti, a brief historical context for the Metamorphoses is provided; women’s lives in Rome, the rape laws that existed during this time, as well as Roman sexuality are then examined. After this, a close textual analysis of different rape episodes in the Metamorphoses is presented, including the episodes of nymphs as victims, the silencing of rape victims and sexually ‘aggressive’ women, in order to reveal and examine the patterns that emerge. While Ovid’s intentions and attitudes towards women, as they are found in the Metamorphoses, have been read by some as sympathetic, by others as misogynistic and still others as more neutral, it is concluded that, although there is space for various readings, as a poet, Ovid was ‘opportunistic’ in his choice of materia and, above all, he wished to stimulate and delight his audience. While his personal values may not necessarily be reflected in his works and his readers may never know the ‘true’ intentions behind the poem, the Metamorphoses does hold up a mirror to the negative treatment of women and exposes the gender inequalities that existed during Ovid’s time. As a poet, however, Ovid’s conceived role is to entertain his audience and despite his somewhat problematic treatment of women and rape victims, he does just that.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:06:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ChristielenDS.pdf: 591277 bytes, checksum: c7d5644d2c09079d3ca05e8c502e6d39 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-11-25 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Pygmalion (1913), by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), has many studies in literary criticism. However, this study brings a new interpretation to Shaw s play based on Harold Bloom s theory and methodology, that is, the anxiety of influence and the dialectic of revisionism. Through the analysis of poetic influence and the dialectic of love, we can see that Pygmalion represents an apophrades in relation to William Shakespeare s The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and Ovid s myth of Pygmalion and Galatea in Metamorphosis (c. 14), which creates a family romance between the three stories. Shaw s play surpasses The Taming of the Shrew when it shows the possibility of the relation between this parent poem and Ovid s myth, which it is also its parent poem, and because it represents a strong misreading of Shakespeare s play as well as of Ovid s myth. / Pigmale?o (Pygmalion, 1913), de George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), possui uma grande fortuna cr?tica. Entretanto, o presente estudo oferece uma nova interpreta??o para a pe?a de Shaw, com base na teoria e metodologia do cr?tico norte- mericano Harold Bloom (1930- ), a saber, a ang?stia da influ?ncia e o revisionismo dial?tico. Atrav?s da an?lise da influ?ncia po?tica e da dial?tica do amor ? que se pode perceber que Pigmale?o representa uma apophrades em rela??o ? pe?a A megera domada (The Taming of the Shrew, 1593) de William Shakespeare (1564-1616) e ao mito de Pigmale?o e Galat?ia encontrado em Metamorfoses (c. 14) de Ov?dio (43 a.C.-17), formando um romance familiar entre as tr?s. A pe?a de Shaw supera seu poema pai (A megera domada) ao mostrar a possibilidade de rela??o deste com a hist?ria de Ov?dio (sendo assim seu poema pai) e por fazer uma desleitura forte n?o s? da obra de Shakespeare, como tamb?m do mito de Ov?dio.

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After murdering Pelias, Ovid’s Medea boards her famous chariot driven by dragons in order to get to Corinth. She does not, however, take a direct route, but makes a detour around the Aegean Sea, which allows the narrator to present 17 metamorphoses as stations of her flight. Whereas the resulting catalogue is traditionally understood as a prime example of a praeteritio which resembles a number of myths that were otherwise leftover in the Metamorphoses, this paper argues that the route Medea takes and the stories she sees from above reflect her own thoughts at this stage of her character-development and above all prepare her fatal decision to kill her own children at the destination of her voyage in Corinth. This circuitous flight and the view from above related to it thus form essential parts of her own metaleptic transformation into the mythological Medea whom the reader in Ovid’s time already knew so well.

This thesis examines the figure of Medusa in the works of three Victorian women: the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) and Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), and the artist Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919). For many in an era that sought to categorize women according to rigid social boundaries, Medusa embodied all that is suspicious, dangerous, and alluring about women. But in subtle and unexpected ways, these three women reimagined the Medusa archetype and used it to explore female experience and expression, as well as the challenges and complexities of female authorship. In their works, Medusa, like other hybrid personae such as the mermaid and the lamia, became a figure through which to explore liminal spaces and slippery categories. I argue that these women prefigured the twentieth-century feminist rehabilitation of Medusa. I also suggest that this proto-feminist transformation of the myth draws, directly and indirectly, from the tradition of Ovid, the first poet to suggest that Medusa’s monstrosity resulted from her victimhood and that her power is not merely destructive, but also creative. My analysis contends that, contrary to common understanding, women were revisioning Medusa’s meaning well before the twentieth century.

Le roman Les Métamorphoses d'Apulée se distingue par les nombreux récits insérés qu’il contient et qui interrompent fréquemment la trame principale. Ces histoires étaient probablement déjà présentes en partie dans le roman grec qui a servi de source à Apulée, les Μεταμορφώσεις. Cependant, ce texte ne nous étant parvenu que sous une forme abrégée (l'ὄνος), il demeure difficile de déterminer à quel point la structure de la version latine des Métamorphoses retient de celle de l’original grec. Certes, certains éléments sont facilement attribuables à Apulée, comme le conte de Cupidon et Psyché, ou encore le 11ème et dernier livre du roman. En plus d’être divertissants, ces récits insérés reprennent les thèmes principaux exploités dans le roman, renforçant la cohérence de celui-ci. Par ailleurs, toutes ces histoires secondaires nécessitent l’intervention de plusieurs narrateurs et, en plus de Lucius (personnage et narrateur principal), divers personnages prennent la parole. Enfin, Apulée accorde aussi une grande attention à la perception que ses personnages ont des événements dont ils sont témoins ou des histoires qui leur sont rapportées. À plusieurs reprises, la subjectivité des personnages influence le récit. Ainsi, les histoires insérées des Métamorphoses, qui peuvent donner l’impression que la trame du récit est brouillonne, sont au contraire l’élément le plus original et le mieux développé du roman. / The Metamorphoses of Apuleius is notable for its numerous inserted tales often interrupting the novel’s main plot. These stories were probably already present, at least partly, in the Greek novel that was used as a source by Apuleius, the Μεταμορφώσεις. However this work is lost and only reached us through an epitomized version (Ὄνος), making it difficult to establish just how much the structure of the Latin Metamorphoses retains from its Greek source. Still some elements can be easily attributed to Apuleius, like Cupid and Psyche’s tale or the novel's 11th (and last) book. Besides having an entertaining purpose, these inserted tales share common themes with the main plot, creating a unity within the novel. Furthermore, multiple narrators are required in order to tell all these stories implying that, in addition to Lucius (the novel’s main character and narrator), many characters play an active part in storytelling. Finally, Apuleius pays great attention to his characters’ perception of events they witness or of stories they hear. And at several occasions the characters’ subjectivity influences the storyline. Thus the Metamorphoses’ inserted tales, even though they may at first give a false impression of confusion, should be considered as the most original and most well developed feature of Apuleius’ novel.

This paper represents the final culmination of a theater senior project. The project consisted of an analytical research paper, performance in a mainstage department production, and supporting process documentation. I portrayed Myrrha, Hunger, Zeus, and others in a production of the play Metamorphoses. Through research on Mary Zimmerman’s 1998 play Metamorphoses, adapted from the works of Roman poet Ovid, this thesis grapples with the historical meaning of the myth of Myrrha. A polarizing figure, Myrrha was cursed to fall in lust with her father. By exploring of portrayals sexual assault onstage, I tackle themes of audience relationships to trauma and taboo subjects. I seek to understand the importance of her story in a modern context, specifically considering the #metoo movement and increasingly public discussions around sexual violence, rape culture, and systematic oppression. I stress our responsibility to understand how codifying stories on stage impacts audiences. This project also contains my conceptualization for the characters I portrayed in Metamorphoses, my rehearsal journal, and post-show reflections. In these sections, I detail the acting theory behind my characters as well as the steps we took to adapt Metamorphoses for our community.

This thesis explores the representation of gender, desire, and identity in elegiac discourse. It does so through the lens of post‐structural and psychoanalytic theory, referring to the works of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Jessica Benjamin, and Laura Mulvey in their analyses of power, gender performativity, and subjectivity. Within this thesis, these concepts are applied primarily to the works of Tibullus, Propertius, and Sulpicia, ultimately demonstrating that the three love elegists seek, in their poetry, to construct subversive discourses which destabilise the categories by which gender and identity were determined in Augustan Rome. This discussion is supplemented by the investigation of Ovid’s use of elegiac discourse in Book 10 of his Metamorphoses, and the way in which it both comments upon Augustan love elegy and demonstrates a number of parallels with its thematic content. This thesis focuses especially on the representation of power relations within elegiac discourse, the various levels on which such relations operate and, finally, the possibilities for the contestation of and resistance to power, in addition to the motivations that might lie behind the poet‐lover’s frequent attraction and submission to it.